The explosion in rich media content, such as audio, video and gaming, is significantly increasing the load on cellular systems. State-of-the-art and next generation cellular systems have to cope with the mobile data growth. The number of cells required to meet the capacity demands is expected to increase significantly. Solutions to meet the increasing demand include the deployment of heterogeneous networks (HetNets) involving macrocells and small cells (picocells, femtocells, etc.), distributed antenna systems (DAS), coordinated multi point (CoMP) communication, relay stations (RS), and the use of device-to-device (D2D) communications. In fact, HetNets are expected to constitute a paradigm shift in state-of-the-art cellular networks, and they constitute an interesting solution for network densification, which is a main theme for the evolution of cellular networks into the fifth generation (5G).
On the other hand, energy efficiency is representing an increasing concern for cellular network operators. Naturally, the main motivation is to minimize their electricity costs and maintain profitability. Nevertheless, reducing CO2 emissions and other negative impacts on the environment such as electromagnetic radiation pollution are also important objectives. In fact, a large portion of the energy dissipated in a cellular system is actually consumed at the base stations (BSs).
Further, operating a dense HetNet in an energy-efficient manner with minimized energy consumption is a challenging task. Typically in a HetNet, macrocell BSs (MBSs) cover areas that are relatively large, and coexist with small cell BSs (SCBSs) covering smaller areas and thus providing network access points (APs) at closer proximity to the users in order to enhance the capacity and achievable data rates and meet the quality of service (QoS) requirements.
The conventional techniques addressing BS on/off switching, assume that there is a sort of centralized entity in the network that controls the on/off switching of BSs. In addition, the conventional techniques consider an exchange of information between the BSs and/or the UEs with the network that is beyond the existing standards in state-of-the-art cellular networks. The conventional methods focuses on switching off BSs and fail to disclose any efficient technique for switching BSs on.
In view of the drawbacks inherent in the prior art, there exists a need of a low complexity, efficient, and distributed approach that allows dynamically switching BSs on/off according to traffic load conditions without centralized control from a central entity in the network to save energy in wireless networks.